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Information Manipulation
Level: 3 Minimum Quantum: 5 Dice Pool: Intelligence + Information Manipulation Range: (Quantum + Power Rating) × 10 metres Area: One person or object no larger than a person Duration: Variable Effect: Character can manipulate information in various forms. Multiple Actions: Yes Description A character with this power can work directly on the information contained in physical objects, the environment and other people's minds. It overlaps somewhat with powers that command various parts of the world around the nova, but unlike them, it doesn't affect matter or energy as such. It deals with information itself - the content and meaning of physical artifacts, energetic processes and symbols. At the Storyteller's discretion, Taint in the target may add a difficulty penalty. Information Manipulation relies on deep structures in the human mind and physical universe, and Taint can change both. Mind-warping Taint may raise the difficulty by as much as +1 per level of Taint, while not-directly-related Taint raises difficulty +1 for every two or three levels of Taint. Extras * Extended Duration: the nova can spend extra successes to increase the duration by 10 times. Techniques Coherence Duration: See below The nova can extract the intended message from garbled or distorted impressions. With this technique, the nova can filter out static, gain an impression of the contents of a shredded letter, fill in the gaps while listening to someone talk who gets periodically drowned out and the like. Each success gives the nova one turn (in combat) or one minute (outside combat) of clear comprehension. Coherence doesn't automatically provide translation or other context, just the signal itself. The nova uses her usual reading speed when appraising written information. Disinformation Duration: Maintenance The nova can alter the meaning of the target's communication, whether the target is a particular person or an artifact no larger than a person. The nova doesn't get to specify in detail what the outcome is, but can indicate a general effect, such as making a love song sound like an angry, cynical denunciation, or turning a challenge to combat into a surrender. People attempting to understand the target's real intent must make a Perception + Awareness roll to pick up the cues beneath the nova's alterations, and must get more successes than the nova got on the Disinformation roll. Example: The Hollyhock Goddess has got tired of the particularly virulent anti-nova rantings of a wingnut preacher in Oregon. Since her various research projects are all in order for the moment, she sets out to make his life miserable. She uses simple disguises to mingle with the crowd and then applies Disinformation from a safe distance (several dozen metres, given her power level). She turns his anti-nova rants into tirades against some randomly chosen target: the price of toilet paper, the colour of the sky, whatever seems likely to bewilder the audience of bigots. With Intelligence 5, Mega-Intelligence 3 and Information Manipulation 5, she routinely gets six or more successes on her Disinformation rolls, and few of her audience beat that on their Perception + Awareness rolls to discern the preacher's true intent. Information Void Duration: Maintenance The nova can destroy the meaning in the target's communication. This power affects one person or an artifact no larger than a person. With a single success, te nova renders the target's message into utter gibberish. With three ormore successes, the target seems to make sense, it's just that others in the area realise later they retain no concept of the target's intent. Information Void doesn't just affect language, but extends to body language, telepathy and other non-verbal expression as well. Steganography Duration: Special The nova can conceal one message inside another. The concealed message must be no longer than the overt one: no more words if it's written or spoken, no longer in duration if recorded and so on. The concealed message manifests itself once triggered. The nova can specify the trigger conditions as widely or narrowly as he likes: when the message is accessed by a particular person, whenever someone with red hair reads it, when the temperature rises above freezing, one year later or whatever strikes his fancy. The message then remains visible (or audible or however it manifests) for (Quantum + Power Rating) turns. At the end of this time, it disappears and leaves no residue. Anyone searching for the concealed message must achieve more successes on the relevant inquiry roll than the nova got on the Steganography roll. Translation Duration: Maintenance The nova selects an individual person or particular object no larger than a person (a book, an inscribed pillar, etc.). If successful, the nova experiences the intent of the person's communication or the meaning in the object. Translation overlays the nova's native language on the target's speech or prose: the original remains visible or audible, just faint. With three successes, the effects of the Translation become perceptible to everyone in the area, rather than just the nova (if the nova so chooses). Each success thereafter lets the nova add another language or communication form, so that others who don't know the nova's first Translation choice can also share in the experience. Transposition Duration: Maintenance The nova selects two targets, either individal people or objects no larger than a person. If the Transposition roll succeeds, the information content of the two targets swaps. If both targets speak, listeners hear one deliver the other's message, if the targets are books or inscriptions, readers find the meaning of one in the other, and so on. With three successes the nova can add in a third target, plus one more per success thereafter. This power does extend to the targets' minds - a telepath reading one target's mind would encounter the other target's thoughts. Category:Aberrant Category:Quantum Powers Category:Level 3 Powers